Making Bitcoin cheap to spend with Ark

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today, Alex B from Ark Labs joins us to talk about the Ark protocol and Arkade implementation - a Bitcoin layer 2 that uses transaction batching and virtual UTXOs to scale Bitcoin beyond Lightning. We explore how Ark competes with roll-ups, enables Bitcoin capital markets, and could transform Lightning's UX while maintaining self-custody. Alex explains the technical innovations, use cases from payments to lending, and why this could be Bitcoin's answer to Ethereum's scaling solutions. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com NOTES: • Phoenix wallet charges 0.4% per transaction • Bitcoin market cap reached $2 trillion • Roll-ups rely on bridge security assumptions • Ark enables unlimited swap throughput Chapters: 00:00 Start 01:03 What is Ark? 13:34 Sequencers 16:15 Why rollups? 23:47 Security Counsel 28:17 Ellipsis Labs 29:18 EVM vs Ark 35:41 Arkade's killer app 51:30 Bitcoin payments 1:02:17 All innovation comes back to Bitcoin 1:12:12 Fragmented liquidity 1:15:35 Open source 1:19:42 Wen Arkade beta? 👋 Watch on your podcast player of choice! Apple http://tiny.cc/e7wuwz Spotify https://tinyurl.com/aj3ymv6h RSS http://tiny.cc/wbwuwz YouTube https://tinyurl.com/4kwhu4s7 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs, the builders behind Atlas, a blockchain for verifiable finance and Phoenix, an on-chain orderbook DEX with over $50 billion in unincentivized volume. If you're interested in a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. Learn more and apply on Twitter at @Ellipsis_Labs and @atlasxyz. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices